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Hi.
First time on this.
So here goes.
I am a dad with court ordered 50/50 care. I also have child benefit which mum disputed and it was found in my favour as I care for child more.
Have letter confirming I receive Child benefit. Bank statements for child's whole life receiving child benefit.
CMS making me pay mum as she lodged a claim and is saying she receives child benefit.
I asked CMS if they have proof she receives it. And they said no. But she says she receives it.
Absolutely ludicrous.
I rang child benefit up this morning, and they confirmed that she has never received the child benefit.
My mandatory reconsideration was rejected because mum says she receives child benefit. Even though I sent them the letter saying I receive it!
What the [censored] do I do.
This might help with the complaints procedure
That's unbelievable that they aren't checking that you are getting the child benefit.
@actd also I will just add to that. They said they would investigate by the 12th November. After a phone call a week From me they made this decision on the 15th December.
I am planning on going to tribunal.
I have sent them the original child maintenance letter from 2015.
Every single bank statement since 2015 showing me receiving it.
A letter dated December 2021 saying I receive Child benefit.
A court order that states 50/50 custody.
But because the mum has verbally stated she receives the child benefit they have rejected my mandatory reconsideration. Because she claims child benefit.
This is costing me a small fortune each month as the payments were set at the default rate while investigating.
I honestly don't understand it!!!
The link above is how to raise a complaint - I would do this as well as the tribunal, and I'd consider putting in a complain to your MP.
@actd could I challenge ex for lying to CMS? And basically fraudulently taking money from me. Or is it CMS fault?
@tommydaniel the ex is committing fraud, but realistically, nothing ever comes of this. However, the CMS should be able to check with HMRC very easily (after all they do it to check your income), so I would say that the fault lies with CMS for not doing a basic check to check the truth of what she's saying.
@tommydaniel Hi. Must be CMS being incompetent. They should be able to easily verify which parent receives child benefit.
I would recommend you put in a complaint to one of their senior managers; arlene.sugden@dwp.gov.uk and also copy in your MP to that e-mail. Hopefully it can be resolved without going to tribunal. My understanding is once they reject your mandatory reconsideration, then you are clear to take it to a tribunal. the 50/50 equal care order should be good enough evidence to stop maintenance.
@bill337 11pm had an email message from CMS.
The day after they rejected my mandatory reconsideration. They have Reduced my payments.
Nothing mentioned about child benefit or PWC.
Just says that ex reported a change and it has reduced payments.
I am sooo confused now!!
@tommydaniel this is another issue to complain about when emailing that manager and your MP. I remember in past when they did my review, they sent me 2 letters with 2 different payment plans 🙄
@bill337 hi, wanted to give everyone an update. I applied for it to go to tribunal and got my local MP involved.
Once MP was involved it all started picking up pase. In January I rang CMS every day to discuss progress.
Ex had been sent additional questions and a deadline. The deadline passed. I rang CMS and they said they would give her an additional 5 weeks to respond incase there was a delay. I challenged every single thing they said!!
As you can imagine I was not happy with this and requested a new case worker and I would not put the phone down until I spoke to someone new.
I was put through to a different case worker and 2 hours later she was in total agreement that it was 50/50 case. I had the court order so I don't understand why it took so long.
She said she will look to close the case immediately. (Within 6 weeks).
The NEXT DAY I got an email to say it was closed and backdated. All my payments should be paid back to me. But they can't help me get the funds back! (And I can guarantee I will never get them back).
Following on from that my MP received a response about my complaint and it's utter rubbish. Completely defending their own decisions but then on the last sentence said they have now closed the case and dad is PWC and it's backdated.
Basically I just kept at it to get a FAIR result. And finally got their 7months later.
Hope it helps others.
@parrot-carrots Hi thats great to hear. But it should be possible for them to refund you the money you over-paid or wrongly paid. Some people kept chasing it, and CMS sent them a message asking for bank details, to give them a refund. Sounds like it would be another dragged out process to get your money back. I would recommend you join this CMS support group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/239699060076601
Good-ish result - however, I would persue it further if possible. They may not be able to get the money back from your ex, but I would say that they have been negligent in not doing even the most basic checks to verify who was getting child benefit, and in that case, they should be liable. It's then up to them to recover the money from your ex to cover what they pay out to you.
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